It seems ever since St. Peter’s posted an 18-point win over Curtis on Thanksgiving Eve to kick off the 2013-14 campaign that crowning the Eagles kings of the Island was a formality.

Like a snowball rolling down a hill — sorry for the analogy, winter-weary readers — St. Peter’s has gained momentum as the season’s gone on, including an upset of nationally ranked Cardinal Hayes on the road on Monday, and two comfortable wins in the SIHSL Tournament. The Eagles (23-2 overall) have won 13 in a row entering Friday night’s 8:30 championship clash with Curtis, and their two losses on the year have been by a total of three points.

With all that said, Warriors coach Rich Buckheit isn’t sounding the panic alarm.

“Usually, I’m a firm believer in the moment. And at the moment the ball goes up, everything goes out the window,” said Buckheit, whose 56-38 setback on Nov. 27 has been the closest any Island team has come to defeating the Eagles. “Every game is an entity unto itself. I don’t buy into that momentum stuff.”

CURTIS IS 21-4

Curtis (21-4) has been on its own impressive run. After beginning the season 4-3, the second-seeded Warriors haven’t lost in the calendar year and own a 14-game win streak. The biggest difference between their run and St. Peter’s is that Curtis has had to fight more for its victories.

In the tournament, for example, the top-seeded Eagles easily dispatched of Petrides (88-51) and Susan Wagner (82-47). The Warriors, after pulling away in the second half against Port Richmond (70-45), eked out a semifinal decision over St. Joseph by-the-Sea (50-47) — their sixth win of five points or less this season.

“The last couple of weeks, we’ve used a lot of motivation to get us to this point,” Buckheit said. “We’ve focused on our history, and our history in this tournament. We might’ve put a little extra pressure on this group by doing that. Now, as the underdogs, I think our guys are having more fun thinking what it would be like to win this thing.”

Friday marks the 10th time the North Shore rivals have squared off in the title tilt in the tourney’s 22-year history. Curtis has won five of the previous nine matchups, including the last two years; and has captured the event a record 10 times. St. Peter’s has six tourney crowns, but hasn’t held the Singleton Trophy since 2009.

In fact, for all that the Eagles have accomplished to this point and with all the accolades they’ve received during this magical campaign, they come in with a chip on their shoulder.

“Winning Staten Island is the most important thing to us,” said SP coach Charlie Driscoll. “It’s our focus all year. So we are not looking past this to (the CHSAA AA playoffs, which start on Sunday). Especially not with Curtis in the final. I think our kids are going to be as focused as possible. We’ve lost the last three years in the final. We want to get that trophy back.”

How does Driscoll plan to go about that?

“I think we have to neutralize (the Warriors’) offensive rebounding, led by Jamel (Olorunoje) and (Glenn) Murray; they get a lot of second and third efforts at the basket,” Driscoll said. “And we have to neutralize their fast break; they get a lot of transition baskets.”

STOPPING EAGLES WILL BE TOUGH

Buckheit knows that stopping the Eagles — whose margin of victory this season is a whopping 29.8 points — is easier said than done.

“I don’t know if it’s even possible ... but I know that every team has focused on taking away the 3-point line. I know it’s something we’ve talked about,” the Curtis coach said. “We can’t let them shoot squared-up 3s. The problem with that is Glenn (Sanabria) is such a good playmaker and Latrell (Curtis) is also so good off the dribble. We have to try and take away the 3-point line from them and make them put it on the floor. The problem is that it seems like anybody can shoot from the outside for them.”

Asked how he thinks the Eagles would combat his squad, Buckheit stated: “I think they’ll probably try to neutralize our two guards, Rodney Johnson and Innocent (Kukulu). Olorunoje is hard to defend because he’s such an intangibles guy. Their game plan against us probably isn’t geared around one certain thing. I think they’ll probably ‘do what they do’ against us, and it’ll be up to us to react to that.”

When asked how he would defend his own team, Driscoll mulled the question over, almost at a loss for words — which is how most opposing coaches have been this season — before giving his reply.

“It starts with our guards. Glenn, Latrell and Reilly (Walsh) ... you would somehow have to neutralize our guard play,” Driscoll said. “It’s tough because all three guys do three different things. But if some team can play us even at the guard position, that’s a pretty good thing.”

As for their initial meeting three months ago, “I don’t put much stock in that,” Buckheit said. “They’re a much, much better team and we’re obviously much better. They had one quarter where they went off on us (a 19-6 SP edge in the first period); the other three quarters we played them pretty even. We’ve gone with a bigger lineup and we’ve extended the zone with our length. We’re rebounding better. We’ve improved in a lot of different ways.”

“They’re our rivals. Both teams know each other so well, as do both coaching staffs,” said Driscoll. “I don’t think there are a lot of surprises.”

“I know one thing,” Buckheit added. “We’re 21-4 and they’re 23-2, so there have been a lot of wins on the basketball court between us since then.”

JUNIOR VARSITY

Friday’s championship doubleheder begins with the JV title game at 6:30 p.m. between top-seeded Curtis and No. 2 Susan Wagner. The teams split their regular-season meetings with each winning at home — 59-44 for the Falcons on Dec. 4, and 68-58 for Curtis on Jan. 10. In Monday’s semifinals, the Warriors defeated Sea at the buzzer, 57-55; while the Falcons soared over St. Peter’s, 63-39.

FRESHMAN

Top-seeded Monsignor Farrell and No. 2 St. Peter’s will meet in the SIHSL Freshman championship game Saturday at 1 p.m. at Farrell.

The Lions, who are coached by Danny Fisher, are the defending champions. They defeated St. Joseph by-the-Sea last season.The Eagles, who are coached by Denis Driscoll, won the first three Frosh titles between 2010-12.